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The British Army Aeroplane No. 1 in flight, Farnborough, England, October 1908. Its designer, Samuel Franklin Cody, was at the controls. Imperial War Museum, negative number RAE-O 995.
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Aviation & Space

Who was first? Who was second? We do know. Third flight!

Profile picture for user rfortier
Oct 15, 2018
Bonjour / hi, my reading friend. Would you like to join me in remembering the 110th anniversary of the first controlled and sustained flight of a powered airplane within a group of territories known back then as the British Empire? This flight took place in the United Kingdom, in England to be more precise, in October 1908, and …What’s this I hear (read?)? The 110th anniversary of this first flight should be held in February 2019, to commemorate the flight made in Canada by John Alexander
A representative example of a type of leaf kite known as a kaghati. The kamuu, a bamboo bow whose sound is designed to keep birds away from valuable crops, is clearly visible. CASM.
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Aviation & Space

Atonement, if rather late, for a lack of action on my part

Profile picture for user rfortier
Oct 9, 2018
Bonjour, my reading friend. Yours truly is indeed atoning for a lack of action. You see, back in October 2003, the Canada Aviation Museum, today’s Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, acquired one of the largest, if not the largest privately-owned collection of kites from around the world in existence in Canada. This amazing material belonged to Yves Laforest and Anne Clément. Back then, it was their hope, and mine, that kites from this collection would be put on display. For a
Loading up Voo-Doo, the Waco Hadrian used for the first transatlantic flight by a cargo glider, Montreal Airport (Dorval), Dorval, Québec, June 1943. Anon., “Flying into focus”. Flying Aces, October 1943, 7.
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Aviation & Space

It was magnificent. It was splendid. It was pointless.

Profile picture for user rfortier
Oct 1, 2018
Greetings, my reading friend. How are you today? I can only hope that the fall weather is not affecting you too much. Would you be pleased to hear (read?) that the event at the heart of this week’s article took place in summer, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away? All right, all right, our event actually took place on Earth but our planet was so different back then that one could argue it was an alien world. The year was 1943 and much of the Earth was in the throes of a cataclysmic
A poster of the Italian-French movie La morte viene dallo spazio. We see 2 members of the control centre’s team: the unsavoury French researcher and the pretty but cold mathematician.
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Aviation & Space

Movie titles can be so… positive and cheerful: The Day the Sky Exploded

Profile picture for user rfortier
Sep 24, 2018
Good day / buongiorno / bonjour, my reading friend. Are you interested or, better yet, fascinated by science fiction? If so, yours truly advises you to leave this webpage. No, no, don’t go! Yours truly was joking. This being said (typed?), I must warn you that the film we are about to examine this week is not among the masterpieces of the 7th art. La morte viene dallo spazio / Le danger vient de l’espace is not without merit however. The original version of this Italian-French feature film hit
The model of the Soviet rocket made for the French film À pied, à cheval et en Spoutnik. Anon., « À la conquête de la lune… » Photo-Journal, 23 to 30 August 1958, 8.
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Aviation & Space

A dog, a mouse and a Sputnik

Profile picture for user rfortier
Sep 17, 2018
Hello, my reading friend, hello. Would you be unhappy if yours truly brought to our menu a largely spatial subject? Yes? No? Oh I see. Very well. We will talk about space today, despite all opposition. Indeed, the august institution for which I have the honour and pleasure of working, most of the time, is the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, Ontario. You will notice the presence of the word space in this name. I would therefore like to highlight this week the 60th anniversary of the
Patrick bundled up for the cold storage
4 m
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Social Science & Culture

A Day in the Life of an Archives Summer Student

Profile picture for user Adele Torrance
Sep 14, 2018
This summer I had an amazing time visiting the Canada’s Museum of Science and Technology (CSTM). With my family and friends, we took in the sites and explored the exhibits, sounds and interactives of the new museum. There is so much to see that it requires several visits to take everything in as intended. My way into work every day this summer regularly offered me intriguing views of the new development around the museum and the constant stream of visitors arriving; it was a busy summer 2018
The host of the weekly television show Plein Ciel, on the right, and his technical adviser, Captain Marcel Everard. Anon., “Introduction à l’aviation.” La semaine à Radio-Canada, 29 November to 5 December 1958, 12.
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Aviation & Space

A television show I would have liked to see during my youth

Profile picture for user rfortier
Sep 10, 2018
Greetings, my reading friend. With your permission, we will momentarily put aside the remarkable library of the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, to view a publication which, at first glance, had nothing to do with the fields of interest of this august institution. A review of the weekly La semaine à Radio-Canada allowed yours truly to unearth a television show I would have liked to see during my youth. Intended for an adolescent audience, mostly male in all likelihood, Plein
Museum of Fear and Wonder
5 m
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Social Science & Culture

A small, Alberta museum offers up unusual insights into human nature

Profile picture for user Sonia Mendes
Sep 4, 2018
Two brothers have converted a typical, Alberta farmhouse—located near Calgary—into the Museum of Fear and Wonder. This unorthodox museum is a reminder that things are not always what they seem, that the world is much more interesting and complex than we realize. Read more about the Museum of Fear and Wonder in this feature article.
Lift off of the hydrogen balloon that carried aloft the antenna of the American emergency radio transmitter BC-778, better known under the name “Gibson Girl.” Anon., “Gibson Girl to the rescue.” Flying Aces, septembre 1943, 30.
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Aviation & Space

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Profile picture for user rfortier
Sep 4, 2018
Guten tag / good day / bonjour, my reading friend. I hope that all is well with you. If yours truly may be so bold, what do you know about the flights over the seas and oceans made in the 1920s and 1930s to set distance records? Not much, you say? It’s no big deal. All you need to know is that many people from different countries initiated such flights in those years. Some of them, Charles Augustus Lindbergh and James Errol Boyd, arrived at their destination and became heroes. Several other
The Sikorsky S-51 by Sergeant Maurice Dupont of the Sûreté provinciale for his traffic control flights in Montréal, Québec. Willie Lamploy, “Le policier du ciel – Solution aérienne aux problèmes de la route.” Le Petit Journal, 31 August 1958, 94.
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Aviation & Space

It was shouting time in heaven

Profile picture for user rfortier
Aug 27, 2018
Salutations, my reading friend. Are you well? I am delighted to hear (read?) this. While it is true that the library of the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, has no equal in the country, the fact is that many aeronautical / aerospace events are not covered in the thousands, yes, yes, thousands of Canadian and foreign magazines found therein. Newspapers, whether daily or weekly, contain many very interesting photos. Just take a look at the one above, taken from a Montréal,
A modified Douglas DC-6 operated by the Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction. Anon., “Airborne educational TV.” Flying, July 1961, 96.
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Aviation & Space

A unique form of high level education, Part 2

Profile picture for user rfortier
Aug 20, 2018
Welcome back, my reading friend. Are we ready? Not quite? Are you still studying for the test? Too bad, so sad. It’s time to start. Even though trials took place in May 1961, for 500 000 pupils / students, the Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction (MPATI) began to regularly broadcast to schools in September of that year. The televised signal came in loud and clear. One could truly say of this mini network that when its 2 flying television stations was on the air, it was also in it.
A modified Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber used for the 1948-49 Stratovision television broadcasting trials. Anon., “Airborne telecasting proves successful.” Aero Digest, August 1948, 32.
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Aviation & Space

A unique form of high level education, Part 1

Profile picture for user rfortier
Aug 13, 2018
For my next trick, yours truly shall require your full attention, my reading friend. Your mission, should you accept it, is to make a leap of faith, across the chasm of time and space, from 2018 to 1948. And yes, the photo above shows an airplane. Any thoughts? Have you ever heard of MPATI or Stratovision? No? That’s quite all right, I forgive you. Besides, yours truly had no clue either until he stumbled across the photo above, in the American monthly magazine Aero Digest . Our story began in
A typical Innocenti Lambretta scooter. Anon. “Advertising – Bentley’s Cycles and Sports Limited.” Le Petit Journal, 10 August 1958, 110.
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Transportation

Innocentis abroad: The beautiful stories of the Lambretta scooters

Profile picture for user rfortier
Aug 7, 2018
Good day / buongiorno / bonjour, my reading friend. You may wonder what a scooter lifted off the pages of the 10 August 1958 issue of a Montréal, Québec, weekly, Le Petit Journal , is doing in our blog / bulletin / thingee. I respectfully respond to this observation by pointing out that there is more to life than airplanes. This being said (typed?), the subject that concerns us this week has a small aeronautical element, but enough twaddle, let us move into the heart of the matter. Allied to